|
 Cable Broadband vs. DSL FastAccess Internet Service
By DANIEL CALLOWAY,
TheWorldJournal.com
If you're like me, you've made up your mind that it's high time to get on the fast track and switch from your extremely slow 56K modem connection to one of the faster Internet access mediums. Web surfing with a 56K modem can and often is cumbersome at best. Clicking on links that take anywhere from 20 to 30 seconds to produce a page on your screen is no fun and can lead to what I call Internet fatigue. This is the tiredness that results from waiting for something to happen on the web. Downloads can be slow as well, taking anywhere from several minutes to several hours depending on the size of the file you're downloading.
The standard in connectivity today has shifted from what was the standard (56Kbps or 56K bits per second, internal or external modem) a few years ago to a more efficient and faster means of connecting and surfing. This new standard is called
high-speed broadband or fast access connectivity. Typical upload speeds are 256K bits per second and download speeds are 1.5M bits per second with either
high-speed Cable or Fast Access DSL service. Though both means of connecting to the Internet are extremely fast (about 50 times faster than connecting with a 28.8K modem) and their overall costs are fairly equal, that's where their similarities end.
Before you make the plunge and drop your current dialup ISP (Internet Service Provider) to go to
high-speed broadband, there are some considerations that you need to keep in mind: bandwidth and security. Bandwidth is the amount of signal that is available to each user for his or her connection to the Internet; and, security is the privacy that we have while surfing the web or just simply being connected to the Internet in an "always on" connection.
When deciding which broadband or Fast Access service you should go with, these two factors need to be kept in mind. Why? One form delivers you less bandwidth and less security as new subscribers are brought online while the other offers you a stable bandwidth with greater security. Let's take a closer look at these two types of
high-speed Internet connectivity.
The most common form of high-speed connection today is CABLE. Typically, you receive this service via the same company through which you currently receive your cable TV service. Cable broadband service has two significant drawbacks: one, the bandwidth you receive; that is to say, the amount of signal that you have allocated to you to use while surfing or downloading is decreased as more and more subscribers use the service. This means that your connection and download speeds are degraded as more customers sign up; and, secondly, the cable broadband network is a shared network. This means that it is less secure as a result of being shared with many other subscribers. The likelihood of intruders is increased. On the other hand, the second most common form of
high-speed connection (often referred to as Fast Access) is DSL or ADSL service. DSL (Digital Subscriber-Line service) or ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber-Line) service has some advantages not provided with
cable service. First, since DSL and ADSL are transmitted across existing telephone lines, the network it uses, called POTS or Plain Old Telephone Service, is a private network rather than a shared network so consequently the bandwidth is not shared among its subscribers and thus your connection speed and download times will not suffer as a result of more people signing up to the service; and, secondly, since it is a private network, it is less likely that intruders will invade your privacy while surfing the web. DSL allows the user to use the telephone while connected to the ISP since data and voice are transmitted over the lines at different frequencies.
When making a decision as to which type of high-speed connection service you wish to go with, keep in mind that more and more people are turning to a faster means of accessing the Internet today simply because more and more media is being made available online to the customer. It's this richer media which is driving more people to consider higher connectivity speeds not only because the higher speed is desired but because it is also essential to deliver the web experience.
Deciding on whether to go with cable or DSL when migrating to high-speed broadband can be tough. But if you keep in mind these two factors: bandwidth and security, the decision might be just a little bit easier to make.
|
|
|
